IR spectroscopy measurements may be useful for a variety of purposes including aerospace, automotive and industrial applications, as well as biological and biomedical applications. For example, infrared (IR) radiation is readily absorbed by organic materials in association with relative motions (vibrations) of atoms such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. As such, IR spectroscopy measurements may indicate a condition of a wide variety or organic and inorganic materials.
For example, organic polymer materials such as resin-fiber composites or adhesives may degrade over time due to a variety of reasons including heat exposure. Chemical degradation to a polymer structure may occur, thereby affecting the desired properties of the polymer structure including structural integrity such as strength of a composite or the adhesive properties of an adhesive.
Chemical degradation of a polymer material may be caused by exposure to normal environmental conditions over time, including normal temperature variations and ultra-violet light, as well as exposure to abnormal conditions such as elevated temperatures and stresses, resulting in oxidation and the breaking of existing polymer chemical bonds or forming of new polymer chemical bonds. Maintenance of polymeric materials requires a determination of the degree of degradation of the desirable properties of the polymeric material.
One non-destructive method of ascertaining the condition of polymeric containing material, such as the degree of heat damage to composite materials includes IR spectroscopy of the composite material as outlined in U.S. Pat. No. 7,115,869, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Other non-destructive methods in the prior art include using IR spectroscopy to determine the amount of a chromated conversion coating on a metallic substrate (U.S. Pat. No. 6,794,631), determining the amount of an anodize coating on a metallic substrate, (U.S. Pat. No. 6,784,431), determining and amount of opaque coating on a substrate (U.S. Pat. No. 6,903,339), and determining an amount of heat exposure to a resin-fiber composite substrate (U.S. Pat. No. 7,113,869), all of which are fully incorporated by reference herein.
However, in many cases, organic materials that could benefit from non-destructive IR spectroscopy, cannot be accessed within their normally existing environments by IR spectroscopy measurement methods and devices of the prior art, such as where they must be accessed through a small opening, or where a relatively large sample size must be collected and/or measured ex-situ from a normally existing environment. Thus, many small sampling areas and/or organic materials that are hidden or covered are inaccessible by prior art IR spectroscopy measurement methods and devices making non-destructive evaluation of such materials impractical.
Thus, there is a need for an improved IR non-destructive testing device and method for using the same to non-destructively determine a condition of organic containing materials over small sampling areas and/or in hard-to-access configurations.
Therefore it is an object of the invention to provide an improved IR non-destructive testing device and method for using the same to non-destructively determine a condition of organic containing materials over small sampling areas and/or in hard-to-access configurations.